Shashi Tharoor as head of MPs team arrives in Guyana on post-Operation Sindoor anti-terrorism mission

Georgetown, May 25 (IANS) Shashi Tharoor, who is heading a delegation of the Members of Parliament, arrived in Guyana on Sunday on the second leg of the mission to expound India's anti-terrorism message and Operation Sindoor's goals.

"It is Guyana's 59th Independence Day tomorrow (Monday), and we will be present at the midnight speech by the President (Irfaan Ali) tonight," Tharoor said in an X post announcing his arrival.

The team arrived here after a stop in New York on Saturday during which they visited the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Centre that symbolises America's stand against terrorism and met with academics and think-tankers.

India's High Commission in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, said, "The delegation will be interacting with the Guyanese leadership and key interlocutors from media, Indian community and diaspora, and friends of India in Guyana."

The MPs will emphasise "our strong message of unity and brotherhood as well as India's collective resolve to fight against the scourge of terrorism," it added.

The team will go from here to Panama, Colombia, and Brazil, before returning to the US on June 3 for meetings in Washington.

The Tharoor-led delegation is one of the seven teams of Members of Parliament fanning out across the world to 33 countries to convey India's position in the aftermath of the massacre of 26 civilians at Pahalgam by The Resistance Front, an affiliate of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba.

India struck nine terrorist centres in Pakistan and the areas of Kashmir it occupies.

Pakistan then attacked India, targeting civilian structures like places of worship, including gurudwaras, temples, and convents, and medical facilities, leading to an escalation of the conflict.

Underlining the national unity against terrorism, the team is headed by Tharoor from the opposition Congress Party and includes Shambhavi of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Sarfaraz Ahmad of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, and Milind Murli Deora of the Shiv Sena.

The other members are Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, and Tejasvi Surya of the BJP, and GM Harish Balayogi of the Telugu Desam Party, a National Democratic Alliance partner.

Tejasvi Surya and Sarfaraz Ahmad arrived in Georgetown on Saturday night.

BJP MP Surya said on X, "Guyana holds a special place in India's foreign relations, with nearly 40 per cent of its population being of Indian origin."

He added that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, "our longstanding ties have only strengthened over the past decade."

Speaking in New York, Tharoor outlined the message the delegation will be conveying on their travels.

The various efforts to get Pakistan to end its support for terrorism and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure have failed.

Therefore, he declared, "From our point of view, this is it. You do this, you're going to get this back."

"And we have demonstrated with this operation that we can do it with a degree of precision and with a degree of restraint that the world we hope will understand," he said.

"We have a right to self-defence, we've exercised that right, we have not done so irresponsibly...," Tharoor said.

--IANS

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